|  | Conditions Treatments | HIV AIDS

Treatment for AIDS in the 1980s

In the 1980s, acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was a new and ambiguous disease that seemed to affect homosexual men, drug users and those who received blood transfusions. AIDS developed into epidemic proportions causing severe illness and death, leaving treatment options limited to prevention since little was known about the disease.

  1. Prevention

    • The only form of treatment in the 1980s was prevention and awareness, which was spearheaded nationwide by the federal government. Additionally, in 1987 HIV and AIDS education was implemented in schools and throughout gay rights communities. They were designed to not only provide information, advice and preventive methods, such as condoms, but as an outreach campaign so that high-risk individuals could get tested.

    Disease-Monitoring Systems

    • Established in 1981, disease-monitoring systems helped doctors understand how AIDS was transmitted. This promoted a nationwide awareness of the disease and encouraged individuals to get blood tests.

    Alternative Solutions to Transfusions

    • People who received blood become concerned about the safety of the blood supply in the 1980s. This led to new developments and technologies, such as alternative blood transfusions, autologous blood, viral inactivation and artificial blood substitutes. In 1985, serologic assay for the HIV virus became a routine preventive step, which screened all blood for AIDS.

    Transfusion Prevention

    • In the 1980s, the Food and Drug Administration excluded certain people who may have the AIDS virus from being allowed to donate blood. This included any male who had sex with another male since 1977 and male and female prostitutes and their partners.

    Confidential Unit Exclusion Form

    • In 1986, the confidential unit exclusion form was implemented, which provided a chance for donors to indicate if they believed that they engaged in high-risk activity, making their blood potentially high-risk for a transfusion. The form was confidential and later modified with face-to-face screening questions.

    Antiviral zidovudine

    • Considered the first drug implemented for the treatment of AIDS, Antiviral zidovudine, (brand name Retrovir) was breakthrough treatment that was licensed in 1987. The drug stopped the replication of the DNA chain of AIDS, allowing the disease to stop its progression past the HIV stage. This greatly reduced the mortality rate in the late 1980s.

HIV AIDS - Related Articles